SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Monday, October 17, 2011

New Barn Owls Arrive at King Estate Winery


July 25 2011
Laurin Huse, the Rehabilitation Director at Cascades Raptor Center, arrived at King Estate Winery on a breezy but sunny day with four boxes. Each box contained a rehabilitated 4-month-old barn owl that came to the Cascades Raptor Center as an orphan. Some baby owlets were only days old when they arrived at the center. Once they arrived at CRC the owlets were paired with an adult owl foster mom (Diana) who taught them everything they needed to know to survive in the wild. When they proved they can survive in the wild by demonstrating their ability to catch live prey in a specialized hunting enclosure, these young owls got the opportunity to return to the wild.
The young owls are placed in “owl boxes,” in trees around the King Estate property. The door is covered in an effort to acclimate the youngsters to their new surroundings. After a couple of hours, the door cover is removed, allowing the owls to venture out and start their new lives.
King Estate Winery has a unique partnership with the Cascades Raptor Center. The center loves releasing their birds of prey at King Estate because their organic estate is a safe, healthy environment for raptors to thrive in. King Estate likes the benefit of having these natural pest-controllers scouring the vineyard for pesky rodents that disrupt roots and eat grapes.
The sight of these majestic birds perched atop trees and gliding through the sky isn’t too bad either.
Don’t you just love endings like this? 
What a beautiful place to be a Free barn owl!
Pocket gophers cause extensive damage to many crops throughout California.